Kolkata -- She was married off at 12 for fear of getting trafficked, narrowly escaped from getting 'sold' by her in-laws. Nothing could deter this indomitable woman's fight against human trafficking. Finally, she has now won international recognition.

Jim Hughey III, a practicing attorney at Birmingham’s renowned Lightfoot, Franklin and White group, is keen on making the ostensibly odd jump from his lucrative partnership at a private practice to the bureaucratic and distinctively less opulent world of public service.
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Dan Nainan is a professional comedian who performs all over the world doing only clean comedy. This year alone he has performed in Hong Kong and Dubai, and has upcoming shows in Trinidad, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and of course my usual shows in the States. Included in the list of luminaries Dan has performed for are names like Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Yoko Ono, and Sanjay Gupta.

Dan has also dabbled in acting. Last year, he filmed for the feature film “The Last Airbender” alongside Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame, Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show, and director M. Night Shyamalan.

Dr. Amit Roy has been fighting the global war on hunger for thirty years. His weapons are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, the three essential elements of the fertilizer. “Here in the United States, people do not understand the use of fertilizer since the cost of food is less than 10 percent of their income,” explains Dr. Roy, IFDC President and CEO. “But in developing nations, food can be 90 percent of their income. Fertilizer is their life blood.”

Pravasi Herald presents different facets of entrepreneurship through Dr. Sanjay Singh’s experiences as a successful entrepreneur as a partner in Computer Technology Solutions (CTS), the largest privately held software firm in Alabama.

CTS headquarters in Birmingham, AL

Founded in 1993, CTS has a number of large clients in Alabama and Georgia, and has been profitable for many years.

Dr. Singh is also an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Business. Dr. Singh takes us along on his journey as an entrepreneur in a candid interview with Chief Editor Kusum Singh. He talks about how he got started, his connection with academia, the finances, and the customers. He also talks about the outsiders who have helped the business and the most effective marketing strategy. Then, most importantly, he has some pieces of advice for new entrepreneurs.

Two students from University of Alabama at Birmingham have won prestigious national scholarships. Shweta Patel and Sandhya Kumar were selected from among thousands of applicants to receive respectively a Goldwater Scholarship and a Fulbright Scholarship.

Ms. Bhavani Kakani is the Founder and President of AshaKiran, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educate, empathize, and empower people of South Asian origin who may be experiencing "crisis" situations. She is among the founding directors of Progress Bank and is on its Board.

Deepa Bhate is the Founder & President of Building & Earth Sciences Inc., a Birmingham based consulting engineering firm specializing in geotechnical, environmental, and construction materials testing and special inspection services.

Deepa started the firm in 1999 and today it has grown to 180 employees in 10 offices in eight states. Building & Earth Sciences Inc. with Deepa Bhate at the helms has been ranked the

63rd fastest growing engineering firm in the nation with estimated annual sales of over $17 million.

Dr. Bharat Soni, Ph.D. is internationally recognized for his contributions to computer modeling and simulation and is the chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama.

When Dr. Soni arrived at UAB in 2002, he established the Enabling Technology Lab, which utilizes both 3-D and high-definition visualization technologies. The screen is 10 feet diagonal, which makes it significantly more immersive than other much more expensive systems. With this system, researchers can visualize their data in a stereoscopic virtual environment.